1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a blood component restoration apparatus with the use of which blood exsanguinated from a blood donor is subjected to an operation of separating only a blood component necessary for a blood recipient from the blood, while the other blood components not necessary for the blood recipient are restored to the blood donor.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
At first, with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, a typical example of a conventional restoration apparatus for blood components will be hereinbelow described, with the use of a conventional restoration apparatus, blood exsanguinated from the blood donor is subjected to an operation of separating only blood plasma from the blood, while the other blood components are restored to the blood donor.
In the drawings, 1 designates an exsanguinating needle, 2 designates an exsanguinating bag provided with a blood component discharging pipe 3 in its upper portion. The bag 2 is made of flexible synthetic resin films piled up and fused in their peripheries with each other to form a bag. The exsanguinating bag 2 is connected with the exsanguinating needle 1 through an exsanguinating tube 4. 5 designates a blood plasma receiving bag made of transparent resin films as is in the case of the exsanguinating bag 2, which is connected with the exsanguinating bag 2 through a blood plasma supplying tube 6.
7 designates a filtering/mixing unit constructed of a filtering tank portion 9 and a mixing tank portion 10, in which filtering tank portion 9 a net 8 is received, and the mixing tank portion 10 is provided under the filtering tank portion 9 to be communicated with the same portion 9. An upper portion of the unit 7 are provided with a blood component supplying tube 13 and a physiological saline solution transfusing tube 18. On a front end 11 of the blood component supplying tube 13 is mounted a blood component transfusing needle 12 which is connected to the blood component discharging pipe 3 provided in the upper portion of the exsanguinating bag 2. On a front end 14 of the physiological saline solution transfusing tube 18 is mounted a physiological saline solution transfusing needle 17 which is connected to a physiological saline solution vessel 16 in which the physiological saline solution 15 has been received, which vessel 16 will be described later. In a lower portion of the filtering/mixing unit 7 is provided with a mixed liquid transfusing tube 21, which mixed liquid is prepared by mixing the blood components and the physiological saline solution 15, and an end portion 19 of a mixed liquid transfusing tube 21 is connected to the exsanguinating tube 4 through a branched pipe 20 provided on a midway of the exsanguinating tube 4.
Now, a blood restoring operation performed by such restoration apparatus will be hereinbelow described. As shown in FIG. 1, exsanguinating operation of the blood is performed by stabbing the exsanguinating needle 1 into the blood donor's vein to exsanguinate the blood 23 which is supplied to the exsanguinating bag 2 through the exsanguinating tube 4. When a prescribed amount of the blood is exsanguinated, the exsanguinating tube 4 is closed at its portion between the branched pipe 20 and the exsanguinating bag 2 to the extent of a certain length thereof and then cut at the thus closed portion thereof. After that, the exsanguinating bag 2 containing the blood 23 is treated by means of a centrifugal separator while connected with a blood plasma bag 5 through a blood plasma supplying tube 6, so that a blood plasma 24, which is one of the components of the blood 23 with a specific gravity smaller than any of the other components of the blood 23, floats on the top of the other components 25 of the blood 23 to be separated therefrom as shown in FIG. 2, which other blood components 25 comprise red blood corpuscle, white blood corpuscle and blood platelet and are not required to be supplied to the blood recipient. Next, only the thus floated and separated blood plasma 24 is forcibly supplied to the blood plasma receiving bag 5 through the blood plasma supplying tube 6 under the effect of pressure developed in the exsanguinating bag 2. After that, the blood plasma supplying tube 6 is closed at its portion between the exsanguinating bag 2 and the blood plasma receiving bag 5 to the extent of a certain length thereof and cut at the thus closed portion thereof.
As shown in FIG. 3, then, the exsanguinating bag 2 containing the other blood components 25 is inverted so that to the blood component discharging pipe 3, which is now directed downward, is connected to the blood component transfusing needle 12 by forcibly inserting the needle 12 into the pipe 3. Whereby the other blood components 25 are supplied to the filtering tank portion 9 of the filtering/mixing unit 7 through the blood component supplying tube 13, while the physiological saline solution transfusing needle 17 is forcibly inserted into the vessel 16 so that the physiological saline solution 15 contained in the vessel 16 is also supplied to the filtering tank portion 9 of the filtering/mixing unit 7 through the physiological saline solution transfusing tube 18. The other blood components 25 having passed through the filtering tank portion 9 which contains a net 8 in its interior is mixed with the physiological saline solution 15 in the mixing tank portion 10 of the filtering/mixing unit 7 to prevent the other blood components 25 from coagulating so that the resultant mixed liquid is tarnsfused back into the vein of the blood donor 22. As described above, the other blood components 25, which are the remainder of the blood 23 from which the blood plasma 24 has been separated, are restored to the blood donor 22. Thereafter, all the used exsanguinating bag 2, blood component discharging pipe 3, exsanguinating tube 4 and blood plasma receiving bag 5 are discarded and in their place are installed new ones 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively to make it possible that another new exsanguinating/restoring operation to be conducted.
In the above-mentioned blood exsanguinating/restoring operation, since there is only one blood donor and all the processes of the blood exsanguinating, centrifugal separating and restoring are sequentially conducted, it is possible to surely restore the other blood components 25, which are not transfused to the blood recipient, to the blood donor. On the other hand, for example, as is in a group exsanguinating operation, in case that a large number of the blood donors are subjected to the exsanguinating operation to provide a large number of exsanguinating bags in each of which has been received the blood exsanguinated from each individual blood donor, which exsanguinating bags are simultaneously subjected to the centrifugal separating process. And then the thus separated blood components, which are precipitated and are not required by the blood recipient, are restored to the individual blood donor, the following problem occurs. Namely, since the exsanguinating tube 4 connecting the exsanguinating needle 1 with the exsanguinating bag 2 is cut off before the centrifugal separating process of the thus exsanguinated blood is conducted, it is necessary to write each individual blood donor's name and his blood type on a front surface of each of the exsanguinating bags 2 in the exsanguinating operation in order to make it possible to surely identify later each of the exsanguinating bags 2 as each individual blood donor's by referring his name and blood type written on the front surface of his exsanguinating bag 2, whereby the other blood components 25 of each individual blood donor 22 can be surely restored to the same blood donor 22 in the blood restoring operation in which the blood component transfusing needle 12 is forcibly inserted into the blood component discharging pipe 3 of the exsanguinating bag 2. However, these writing and referring operations of the blood donor's name and his blood type are cumbersome and therefore constitute defects inherent in the conventional blood component restoration apparatus, in which there is further a fear that, in case that there are a plurality of the blood donors whose names and blood types are identical with each other, the blood components of one blood donor could be restored to another blood donor by mistake unless the identification operation of each individual blood donor is performed under stringent measures. This constitutes a further another defect inherent in the conventional restoration apparatus.